Domestic workers’ ‘slave wages’ pose malnutrition risk

There was a severe risk of malnutrition among children of domestic workers as the Covid-19 lockdown led to 64% workers being forced to reduce food spending, a report found.

In the third annual SweepSouth report on pay and working conditions for domestic workers in the country, it found that out of 5,000 respondents, 93% were the main breadwinner in a home with children. About 97% of the respondents were “overwhelmingly” women.

Their earnings dropped from 63% who earned more than R2,500 per month before the pandemic, to 74% of domestic workers earning less than R2,500 per month during the lockdown.

Working hours also reduced with 80% reporting working fewer than eight hours per day as compared to 73% last year.

This forced 64% of the survey respondents to cut down on food spending, leading to a severe risk of malnutrition in children as more than 90% lived with and supported children.

“Domestic workers are frequently the sole providers for their immediate and extended families, yet few were able to eke out a sufficient wage to support themselves and make ends meet,” said SweepSouth chief executive Aisha Pandor.

Workers with five dependants rose to 17% this year, from 12% in 2019, while the number of workers who had six or more dependents rose from 14% to 20%.

The rise of dependents and the closure of school feeding schemes increased the cost of living to above inflation.

“This resulted in 69% of workers being unable to pay rent, the majority of whom are required to catch up any missed payments. About 46% increased their level of debt,” said the report.

But the sector continues to be vulnerable as employers are often ignorant to labour laws that protect domestic workers, while the sector is neglected by the labour department, said the South African Domestic Service and Allied Workers Union assistant general secretary Eunice Dladla.

She said there were many reports of employers who dismissed domestic workers who chose to go home for the lockdown instead of working throughout without time off.

“Most [employers] do not comply with these [labour] laws and I think they have been spoiled and take domestic workers as slaves who don’t have rights and laws to protect them,” said Dladla.

“Most domestic workers are breadwinners and some are from rural areas and they have left children with family.

“That is why sometimes they just keep quiet about some of the things that happen to them at work because they are afraid to be dismissed. Domestic work is a vulnerable sector and workers became more vulnerable because of the pandemic.”

– rorisangk@citizen.co.za

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